Google-Soon You Will Be Able To See Inside Buildings, Businesses With Google Maps

Google has announced that you will soon be able to check out what a local business looks like from inside without you actually ever leaving your house.  We all love the street view feature with google maps, now imagine it inside commercial establishments.  Here in San Diego there is a lot of local bars, restaurants and other establishments that would greatly benefit from this.  Because there is so many locations to choose from especially in downtown.  You need to get ahead of the crowd and get your photos into Google.

Fan page or personal page: How to promote yourself or business on facebook.

Fan page or personal page, what should I be using?  That is a question a hear many times from business owners, agents, & friends.  The answer is not all simple.  You actually have to weigh out its pro’s and con’s, and how it would benefit you. I personally have one of each.

Profile pages are intended for people, not businesses.  If you are using a basic profile for your business it is actually against Facebook terms.  If Facebook were to find out you were using a regular profile page for your business it is possible for them to delete your page including all those friends you worked so hard to gain.

DID YOU KNOW:  

A profile page can only have a max of 5,000 friends.

A fan page is unlimited.

The disadvantages for a fan page are not many, but they should not be overlooked:

•  In A fan page you do not have the ability to invite friends.
• Fans can post negative comments
• You have to keep it up to date

Although these are pretty bad, there is a way around some of them.  As far as not being able to invite friends.  You can copy/paste your url (www.facebook.com/yourfanpage) into your personal page and share –  That is why I have two.  I like to let people know what kind of person I am and that I am not just suit.   You can also set your preferences so that only certain posts in your personal page will show and others can be kept private.  

Keeping it up to date- people like to be acknowledged when they post something on your fan page.  Don’t over do it either.  Posting a bunch of non sense also does you no good.  Keep it to things that are interesting to your audience and not only yourself!  

Here are the pro’s:

• A fan page is free!
• You can have a unlimited amount of fans
• You can contact all your fans in a instant
• You get great feedbacks
• You can get a personalized and much more professional look to yourself and your business.

Check out my fan page to see a example of what I mean:

Click on the image below!

How you can make 25% more money as a Realtor ® & sell listings faster.

Yes thats right! More money in your pocket.  Who couldn’t use it these days right!

According to the National Association of Realtors, homes with professional photographs sold anywhere between $934 to $116,076 more than those shot from cheaper, point-and-shoot cameras.  Before you head for the store to buy a SLR camera you might want to take a look at what you need to take good real estate photos.  Here are the basics (just to get started):

1. SLR camera
2. Wide angle lens
3. Strobe
4. Tripod
5. Photo editing program for computer (to resize pics for MLS)

Those can add up to a couple grand and thats not even taking into consideration that you need to know at least the basics in photography like composition, exposure and the rule of thirds.

Feeling insecure?  Do you offer yourself as a  “Full-Service Agent”, without professional photographs?  Real estate agents have no excuse for poor quality photos.  Did you know:  9 out of 10 searching to buy a home begin there search online. When asked, future homeowners stated that a photograph was there most useful tool when buying a home. Great photographs are also to thank for less time a home listing is on the market.

If you are looking into differentiate yourself when going on a listing presentation tell the homeowners your hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of their home, odds are your competition wont be doing the same. You can also include it as a option for the homeowner in the advertising part of your presentation, making the cost sellers responsibility . Most sellers would agree to pay with such great outcomes!

With these kind of  results why do great agents choose to not take advantage of a professional photographer?